


Fairy Tail Books

by SakiOfTheRebellion



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe, Bookstores, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-04
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-19 11:17:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,840
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8204023
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SakiOfTheRebellion/pseuds/SakiOfTheRebellion
Summary: You’ve just been fired from your job as a waitress at a five star restaurant. Do you a) beg for your job back, b) break down crying, or c) open a bookstore?If you’re Levy McGarden, the obvious answer is C.Welcome to Fairy Tail Books, Levy McGarden’s new bookstore and her dream come true.Fairy Tail AU More ships in later chapters.





	1. Chapter One

_Fairy Tail Books ___

__Levy looked up at the brand new wooden sign hanging just above the door to her brand new space. Glancing over at the display window next to the door, she took note of the ‘Help Wanted’ sign in the corner and the beautiful decals framing the empty display. Although her mind was filled with worry about not being able to handle the financial burden of opening a store, her heart was filled with excitement for what was to come._ _

__“Hey Levy.” The bluenette turned around to find Lucy Heartfilia, an aspiring writer and her longtime friend. On the condition that her debut book be put on display it the front of Levy’s shop, Lucy had agreed to aid Levy in setting up. The blonde had also offered to help Levy in terms of finances, but Levy had outright refused, claiming that she couldn’t accept money from a friend._ _

__“Levy!” Lucy waved a hand in front of Levy’s face, bringing her out of her daze. “Delivery truck’s here. Come on, let’s go unload it! They probably have my book in one of the boxes!” Lucy ran off towards the truck with a huge grin on her face. Levy couldn’t help but smile as she followed closely behind her friend._ _

__As the delivery people unloaded the boxes onto the sidewalk, Lucy couldn’t help but try to open every single box, in search of her new book. Levy, still with a smile on her face, simply shook her head and began picking up boxes. “Come on, Lucy. Natsu is waiting for us to bring the boxes in. He should be done building the shelves by now.” Levy called to her friend who had just finished opening all the boxes that had been on the sidewalk. With a small sigh due to not having had found her books yet, Lucy nodded and picked up two boxes. “Coming. And Natsu is the odd jobs guy you hired to help set up, right? I wonder if he’s cute…” Lucy had mumbled the last bit to herself. Levy pretended not to hear._ _

__Somehow, despite not being able to see over the boxes of books in her arms, Levy made it to the shop’s entrance and kicked the door open. After taking no more than a few steps inside, she heard a loud crash followed by a cry of pain from Lucy. “Lucy! Are you okay?!” Levy looked back as much as she could while still struggling with the weight of the boxes, only to find Lucy blushing while staring at something, or someone, in front of Levy. “Uh huh… Just… just fine.” Lucy sheepishly began gathering the books that had spilled out of the dropped boxes. Thinking not too much about it, Levy carried her boxes to a display table and set them down gently. Turning back to help Lucy gather up all the books on the floor, Levy found Natsu picking up the last of the books and Lucy blushing an even brighter shade of red._ _

__Deciding not to interrupt the two, Levy turned back to the box of books she had brought in and glanced at the books inside. She had already planned out how to sort the books (by genre and author’s last name, aside from books that would be given their own display), so figuring out where those books would go was a simple task. Getting them onto the top shelf was another matter._ _

__“Let me help with that.” Natsu took the box of books from Levy and easily placed the books, two at a time, onto the top shelf. It surprised Levy a bit that Natsu and Lucy hadn’t started flirting, but she definitely was grateful for Natsu’s help. “Thank you!” Levy replied with a kind smile. “By the way, the rest of the books are being unloaded onto the sidewalk just in front of the entrance. Do you think you and Lucy can handle bringing them inside by yourselves? I want to double check the receipt to make sure that all the books I ordered have arrived. Thanks!” Levy winked at Lucy before running off to the back room with the receipt in her hand. “By the way, when you’re done, can you put the books on the shelves? I stuck post-its on the shelves, labeling where everything should go! Ten to fifteen copies of each book should be enough! You can bring the extras to the back room later! Thanks again!”_ _

__Upon entering the back room and shutting the door, Levy breathed a sigh of relief. She had successfully set up Lucy and just had to wait to see the story unfold. After shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Levy headed for the office, which was adjacent to the back room. She hopped onto the office chair and slid across the floor, not unlike a kid, to her laptop._ _

__Before checking on the receipt, Levy first went through a mental list of things she had to do. She had put Lucy and Natsu to the task of placing books in their correct spots and she had known Lucy long enough to know that Lucy could always get a job done without mistake, so that was checked off her list. Levy had also planned to have a small cafe area towards the back of the shop, so she had to purchase ingredients and hire two people to run that: one to run the cafe’s cash register and one to bake the pastries. The supplies were supposed to arrive later that day and there was already a small stack of applications next to her laptop for her to look at, so there wasn’t too much to worry about. Levy planned to run the help desk herself, as no one else would know more about the books in her shop than she did. And all that was left was to hire a cashier or two._ _

__Rather quickly, Levy glanced over the receipt to find that all the books she had ordered had arrived, and in the correct quantities too. She smiled to herself before moving on to look at the applications. The first one was obviously a joke application. The next two applications were from a pair of siblings, Mirajane and Lisanna Strauss, who had requested to work at the cafe. The two seemed extremely promising, so Levy immediately phoned the two. A joint interview was set up for the following day. The siblings seemed eager to land the job. The next application was from a dog-like man with an evident obsession with socks. That application immediately went into the trash can. The final application was illegible._ _

__A knock on the office door could be heard before Lucy poked her head into the office. “Natsu wants to ask you something before he leaves for the day.” Levy nodded and made her way out of the office. “Yes, Natsu? Did you need something?”_ _

__Natsu rubbed the back of his head sheepishly before beginning to speak. “So… I’m really really grateful that you hired me to help you out. I really am. But my odd jobs business isn’t doing too well and this is the only job I’ve gotten in a few weeks… so… do you think you could consider hiring me?”_ _

__Levy responded with a kind smile. “Of course. But the only job I have left is a cashier position. Are you any good with math?”_ _

__Natsu thought for a moment. “Well, I was never good at the high level stuff, like Calculus, but I can do the simple stuff like counting money and addition. Is that okay?”_ _

__“That’s more than fine,” Levy reassured him, “Actually, if you scan the barcodes, the computer will add up the prices and tell you the price. So consider yourself hired! Do you mind starting tomorrow?”_ _

__Natsu’s face lit up with a grin. “Yeah, tomorrow’s perfect! Thank you so much! I promise I won’t disappoint you!”_ _

__“Then I’ll see you tomorrow.” Levy waved as Natsu left the store. The second the door closed, Lucy squealed with excitement. “Levy! I am so going to hang around your bookstore all the time, now that he’s working here! Aaaaah!!! I need to go shopping for new outfits and…” Lucy kept talking to herself as she left the shop._ _

__Levy couldn’t help but grin. She knew that her adventure had only just begun._ _


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author’s note: 100 Jewels = about 100 yen = about 1 USD = about .90 Euro  
> The Jewels to USD translation is canon. Everything else is an estimate.

It was at the crack of dawn that Levy arrived at her bookstore the very next day. There was just so much to do before the grand opening at seven that very day. Perhaps she had been a bit too eager to open her shop before she had even hired enough employees. She was lucky to find a cashier and two potential workers for the cafe so quickly, but Levy knew that good luck didn’t last forever. 

After unlocking the front door, Levy stepped inside and looked around. Everything was just as neat and tidy as it had been when she had left yesterday. A shiny brass bell hung above the entrance so that it would be obvious whenever someone opened the door. Books were neatly stacked on the shelves that lined the walls and made several small aisles. Towards the front of the shop was a medium sized, wooden table, which held twenty copies of Lucy’s debut book. At the back of the shop, the cafe’s small kitchen was fully stocked with both ingredients and baking supplies. It had been a bit of a hassle to bring all of the cafe’s supplies in the day prior, but Levy had managed to get it done. Off towards the right was a staircase leading to the second floor. The second floor wasn’t really a second floor, so much as it was more of a balcony. On the second floor, more shelves lined the walls, but there was a small sitting area for people to sit down and take the time to read a book inside the shop. Scattered throughout the sitting area were several small tables, each holding a single book that Levy had picked out herself, which she assumed people would find interesting to read. 

Levy checked her watch. It was a quarter to seven. The Strauss siblings were scheduled to come in at ten past seven, so Levy had some time to check on finances. She headed to her office, took her laptop out of her bag and powered it on. As soon as it had turned on, Levy opened the finances document. The building itself had cost 25,000,000 jewels. All of the furniture and cafe’s materials had cost another 2,000,000 Jewels. Levy had gotten her books in bulk at wholesale price, so that was another 8,000,000 Jewels for 10,000 books. And there were also the workers to pay. 

The small girl shook her head to clear her thoughts and took a deep breath. She didn’t want to think about how much financial trouble she was in. Luckily, her old job had paid decently and her old customers were rather generous in terms of tipping. And as a bonus, it was late summer, so there would soon be many college students coming in to buy their school books last minute. And it was a rather large city. But that probably wouldn’t be enough to cover all expenses. 

The sound of a bell broke Levy out of her thoughts. “Hello!” called out a feminine voice, “We talked to a woman on the phone yesterday about a job opening here. I believe her name was Ms. McGarden.” 

Rather quickly, Levy got up and exited her office and the back room. “That would be me. But you can just call me Levy!” Upon entering the main part of the shop, Levy caught sight of two white-haired girls of about the same height who were evidently siblings. The one on the left had shorter hair while the one on the right had her hair tied up in the front. 

“Hello, I’m Mirajane!” The girl on the right introduced herself. “And this is my sister, Lisanna!” 

Lisanna smiled kindly at Levy. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”  
Levy returned the smile before replying. “The pleasure is all mine. Come on, let’s go sit upstairs and talk.” With the two girls following behind her, Levy led the way upstairs. The siblings glanced around the bookshop, seeming somewhat impressed. 

As soon as the three sat down, Levy began her questions. “So, tell me how you found out about this job.”

It was Lisanna that spoke up this time. “Well, my sister and I just graduated from culinary school in May. Mira focused more on the customer service aspect of owning a restaurant and I focused more on pastries. We knew we had to start searching for a job soon, but… well…” Lisanna hesitated momentarily before continuing. “Our grandfather fell ill shortly after we graduated, so we had to take care of him. Recently he’s been doing much better, so we went back to job hunting. Since our grandfather is still a bit ill, we decided not to look too far for jobs, so we’ve only looked around this side of the city first. We passed by your store last week and saw the sign in the window. After we looked further into it, we decided that working at a small cafe might be the perfect job for us at the moment.”

Levy listened intently to Lisanna’s story before speaking. “I see… And from your applications, I could tell that you two are very capable of handling a job and I would love to hire both of you. But I just have one last task for you two to do first before I can hire you.”

Mirajane and Lisanna glanced at eachother, excited that they were likely to get the job. “Anything! What is it?” Mira asked with a huge smile on her face.

“Bake something,” Levy responded. “I want to taste something that you’ve made. The kitchen behind the cafe’s display cases is fully stocked. Just try to get done before the store’s grand opening at eight-thirty.” Lisanna and Mirajane nodded excitedly before hurrying off to the cafe area. 

The bell rang once again, indicating that someone had entered the shop. 

“I’m sorry, but we’re clo--- Oh, Lucy!” Levy hurried down the stairs to greet her friend. “What are you doing back here?”

Lucy smiled oddly at Levy, almost as if she was hiding something. “Weeeeell…” Lucy stretched her first word out. “Stores usually get a lot of customers during their grand opening. And I thought you might be a little short-staffed…. Soooo maybe I thought you might need some help? Especially at the cash register?”

Levy gave the blonde a knowing grin. “Mhm… And you definitely didn’t just want to flirt with Natsu.”

Lucy sighed dramatically. She had expected Levy to figure out the truth, but just not that quickly. “Okay, maybe it’s because of that and maybe it’s also because I owe you bigtime for being the only one who agreed to sell my book. Anyways, can I please stay here? I promise I’ll even help out.”

Levy sighed, hiding a faint smile from Lucy. How could she possibly say no, especially when she had tried to set the two up just the day before. “Alright, but just try not to distract Natsu too much. He is my only cashier after all.”

Lucy’s face lit up with a huge grin. “I won’t, I promise! Oh my gods, thank you, Levy!” The blonde attempted to scoop Levy up in a huge hug to show her thanks.

Just then, the door opened again. Natsu stepped inside with a huge grin on his face. “Hey!” Upon seeing the two girls, his smile faded as he stopped in his tracks. “Am I late?”

Levy stepped away from Lucy and shook her head. “Nope! You're right on time, actually. We open in about a half hour minutes.”

“Awesome!” Natsu’s grin returned. “You need me to do anything before we open?”

“Could you just check on the books in the back room and make sure they're arranged properly by the author’s last name?” 

“No problem!” Natsu hurried off to the back room to begin his task.

“We're done!” Mira and Lisanna approached Levy and Lucy with a tray of cookies. “We hope cookies are alright.” Mira held the tray out to the two.

Levy picked up a cookie and took a bite. The cookie was light, yet also buttery at the same time and almost seemed to melt on her tongue. “You're hired!” She declared immediately. “Do you think you can start working today?”

Excitedly, the siblings nodded. “Yes, of course!” Replied Lisanna. “Thank you so much for the jobs!” said Mira. Then the two hurried back to the kitchen to begin preparing pastries for the day. The aroma of baked goods filled the air. 

Levy glanced down at her watch once again. It was fifteen minutes until the grand opening.

Her adventure was just about to begin. 


End file.
